Global Warming

What is Global Warming?
Global Warming is the increase in the average surface temperature of the globe being caused by an enhancement of the greenhouse effect primarily from air pollution created by humans. Scientists predict that the world will warm between 1.5 and 4.5 degrees in the next 20 years. The world's governments hold meetings such as the Copenhagen summit to try and come to an agreement to cut  CO2 emmisions, which cause the greenhouse effect.

What causes global warming?
The temperature of earth is a result of the balance between how much energy the sun gives us, and the amount of this energy that we lose back into space. On average around 1/3 of the sun's energy is reflected back into space. Of the energy that comes into earth, most of it eventually is reflected back into space. The suns energy comes into earth quicker than it is reflected out, and this is the greenhouse effect. We need it to make the earth warm enough to live in, but if there is too much of the greenhouse effect, too much heat will be trapped in the atmosphere and the earth will warm.

We produce CO2 emissions by burning coal, which gives us energy to power our lights, TV'S, and most of our appliances. This enhances the greenhouse effect because these emissions trap heat in the earths atmosphere. Burning coal is not the only way of producing energy. There are other ways that do not warm up the earth, and are renewable. Solar power, wind power, and wave power are among the renewable sources available to us. At the moment these sources are not very efficient and are quite expensive.


How long do we have before we get affected by global warming?
In the past 100 years the earth has warmed 0.74 degrees celcius.We are currently in a drought, we have recently experienced the worst bushfires in our history, with 200 deaths, and even Russia is experiencing heatwaves and bushfires. You could certainly argue that the effects of global warming are already being felt. 4.5 degrees doesn't seem like an incredible amount, but this would overthrow the delicate balance of our world, and the effects would not just be the heat. There would be more temperature variations, storms, and natural disasters. There is also a tipping point where we will not be able to turn around the warming. If the world warms up by around 6 degrees, there are capsules of ice in Russia that contain methane, which will melt if the world warms to that tipping point. The effect of methane is much worse than CO2,  and the world could warm by up to 20 degrees.

When will the world be able to rely solely on renewable sources for it's energy?

As with everything, technology keeps getting better, and governments are putting a lot of money into research that will make our renewable energy more efficient and hopefully a lot cheaper. Brendan Conlan, the academic we interviewed, and most experts, predict that in the future, possibly in the next 100 years, burning coal will be illegal.

 This will be a gradual process, but if we make agreements to cut down emissions, and put enough money into the research of being able to store renewable energy, the dream of relying only on renewable energy could become reality sooner than we think.

What can we do about it now?
We can all try to make adifference to climate change, by installing solar panels, and trying to turn off appliances when not in use.Until there is better technology for storing renewable energy, we will still need to burn coal, but if we can come to an agreement to reduce CO2 emmisions by a reasonable amount, then we are making a start.
One thing the government can do to speed up the transition to renewable energy is to introduce a carbon tax. This means companies will be taxed for how much carbo emmisions they produce. This would go a long way to encouraging companies to switch to more renewable sources of energy. I believe this would be a great help and that we need all countries to introduce a carbon tax if we are serious about saving our planet.